Let’s start with this: I was given a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
With that, The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon is a very long book, and it took me awhile to whittle through it while getting other projects done. And it was a great book.
This follows four distinct stories, taking place in the West, South, and East. In this world you have those who follow the Saint, a man who supposedly put the Nameless One (a dragon who is fire and wants to kill all of humanity) to sleep, the Nameless One, and the East where the worship the dragons of the water and air. As such, it took a while for the story to get going as there is so much background information needed to understand what is going on. And, in a lot of ways, the religions still mostly confuse me. But, beyond that, this was a great high fantasy read. Court intrigue was the name of the game in the West, while everyone one was on the classic adventure saga path.
This novel worked so well by itself. Could be that there will be a sequel, but I really enjoyed this book. It dealt with the hot topics of today – they had gay folks in this, people, and they could be “companions”, plus all sorts of different colored people in different walks of life – but it didn’t point them out as being important to the story outside of descriptions and understanding the relationships that the characters had with one another.
I, for one, really appreciated that they also had people who loved one another as friends. Loth and Ead, as well as Loth and Saban, were wonderful relationships that added to the story in their own way.
Shannon has written a complex story that is difficult to discuss in a short form. Who would like this book? Anyone who enjoys fantasy of any level would appreciate this book. Particularly those who enjoy deception in their novels, action, and growth. These characters go through difficult things, and the author didn’t buckle at them. She attacked them head on and forced her characters to deal with them, even if they didn’t want to.
If you don’t like fantasy and complicated stories, this likely isn’t the novel for you.
